Why NBC's Smash is poised to be just that

Smash: NBC's latest show is poised to be just that

By Alex Strachan

On a day about a year ago, when nine Broadway productions closed over a 24-hour period, a prominent Broadway theatre critic noted that, while he was sympathetic to the actors and other stage employees who lost their jobs, “that’s how theatre works.”

And has always worked. To paraphrase A Chorus Line, nobody chose to pursue theatre because he was looking for a steady job.

That sense of desperation, mixed with the heady optimism, hope and expectation, that accompanies any new Broadway opening was the driving inspiration behind Smash, a new ensemble drama about the behind-the-scenes histrionics at a fictional musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

The cast of characters runs the gamut from game and fresh-faced ingenues hoping to land the role of their lives, to jaded, cynical veterans determined to create something that, like Smash itself, transcends the trite and stale. And makes money.

Smash’s real-life, behind-the-scenes playbook reads like a mashup of film and Broadway’s best and brightest. Chicago and Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, award-winning playwright Theresa Rebeck, Tony- and Grammy-winning composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and film producer Steven Spielberg are the luminaries behind the camera.

Lighting up the stage in front of the camera are Broadway veterans Megan Hilty, Anjelica Huston, Debra Messing and Christian Borle, English stage actors Jack Davenport and Raza Jaffrey, and 2006 American Idol runner-up, Katharine McPhee.

The frantic pace of learning, singing and recording songs, coupled with the demands of making a television show, is not new to McPhee. She knows she’s in the big time, now — Spielberg, Zadan, Shaiman, Huston, Messing — and the standards are more exacting.

“It’s different,” McPhee admitted. “Because, here, I’m usually singing songs I’m hearing for the first time, and it’s such a fast pace we’re on, you don’t get a lot of time to sit with the songs and really perfect them, as much as I would like to.”

McPhee and Hilty play the two singers who, by the end of the audition process, are vying for the title role in the fictional musical based on Marilyn Monroe’s life. Hilty is a Broadway veteran, having played leading roles in the musicals Wicked and 9 to 5: The Musical.

“It’s different, too,” McPhee said, “because I think of myself as more of a pop artist, whereas Megan has the big Broadway voice. So I’m always trying to balance the two, so they’re cohesive and make sense in the context of the show.”

Hilty, for her part, found herself pleasantly surprised by Smash’s authenticity.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been backstage, looking around, going, ‘Where’s the camera? There needs to be a camera here,’” Hilty said. “Because the drama that happens behind the curtain is way more interesting than what’s happening on the stage. That’s why I’m really, really enjoying this.”

The early notices have been strong. Some reviewers are already calling Smash the TV event of the season, based on its first four episodes. The New York Daily News has called it “a loving paean to Broadway, and to the enduring legacy of Marilyn Monroe.”

As producers Zadan and Meron know only too well, though, early notices don’t count for much at the box office. They work in a business, after all, where nine shows can close in a single day.

Zadan credited Glee with opening the door for a big-budget TV ensemble production about the making of a Broadway musical. Before Glee, he suggested, the idea would have been risible, especially given the Hollywood studios’ reputation for risk-aversion during economic hard times.

“When Ryan Murphy did Glee, he broke this huge barrier,” Zadan said. “He allowed the networks to really believe there’s room for drama, comedy and music in one show, week after week. I don’t believe any of us feel this show is anything like Glee, but we’re appreciative and grateful to Glee for opening that door.”

Smash’s biggest gamble may well be whether audiences will be engaged enough to want to come back, week after week. Television tells serialized stories, whereas Broadway plays and musicals tell more self-contained tales, with a distinct beginning, middle and end.

Rebeck insists Smash can stay the course, and prove its doubters wrong.

“The first season plan is to take ‘Marilyn’ all the way to an out-of-town tryout, which will be the first public presentation,” Rebeck said. “The second season, if we’re lucky enough to get there, will be ‘Marilyn’ opens on Broadway. How does it fare in New York?”

Smash, on the other hand, has more than just New York to think about. It has to play in New York and Los Angeles, St. John’s and Victoria, and all points in between.

Rebeck says their efforts are focused on making an engaging TV series, first and foremost, and worrying about an actual Broadway musical spinoff second.

“What we’re aiming to do right now is write a great television show. That really is what we’re all about. This show is enough of a challenge right now, as it is, for all of us. As for what happens in the future — who knows? Like, we could all die tomorrow, or something.”